A PLANNED SUICIDE barrier for the Golden Gate Bridge is coming into focus again as a final design nears completion, prompting officials to discuss ways to fund the $50 million project that supporters say will save an untold number of lives.

In early 2014, the $5 million final design of a net extending from the span is expected to be completed.

"The fact that the project will be ready (to build) shortly creates a strong interest in finding a funding solution as soon as possible," said Denis Mulligan, the bridge district's general manager.

But board policy states toll dollars can't be used for the project, and outside funding sources would be needed to pay for the net.

But as the district grapples with its finances and looks ahead at its funding, some on the board want to find a way to help pay for the project.

"It has to be paid for, the suicide barrier has to be," said John Moylan, 85, who has served on the bridge board off and on since 1987 and lost a grandnephew to suicide. "Suicide is everyone's problem and we have to do something about it. It's not right. My family has been touched by it and I'll tell you what, it tears a family apart."

Moylan served as president of the bridge board of directors in 2008 when the 19-member panel made the historic decision to move forward with the barrier after years of discussion. Until then, the debate over a suicide barrier ebbed and flowed for decades. Discussion of a barrier began in the 1950s, but the first intensive look at a solution took place in the early 1970s, when 18 design concepts were evaluated, then shelved.

Roughly two dozen people jump from the span each year, and more than 1,500 people have jumped from the span since it opened in 1937. Another 80 or so people who are contemplating suicide are pulled off the bridge every year.

A labor leader from San Francisco, Moylan would like to tap the thousands upon thousands of tourists who come to the bridge each year who now experience the span for free.

"I think we should work out some sort of toll to walk the bridge," Moylan said. "We get so many buses here, so many people. We could work something out where it is free for locals and have visitors pay to walk the bridge and generate money for the barrier that way."

The barrier has a powerful supporter in the Metropolitan Transportation Commission — the agency that hands out funds for Bay Area Transportation projects. In 2010, the agency provided $5 million in funding for the design of the barrier.

"The commission and the bridge are talking," said Randy Rentschler, commission spokesman. "In the past we have put money into the barrier and we continue to monitor its progress."

While not a transportation project per se, the commission views the barrier as a safety issue, similar to the ongoing seismic upgrade to Doyle Drive, Rentschler said.

"The bridge is a major transportation facility in the Bay Area," he said. "The commission pressed hard to get Doyle Drive fixed for safety and we think the two issues are related."

But Rentschler cautioned: "We are still early in the (funding) process."

Bridge board member and Marin Supervisor Judy Arnold said she welcomes working with the commission toward building the barrier, calling the project a "great thing for us to do."

"The MTC might be able to provide an infusion of money that we need, and we can work with the federal government as well," she said.

Backers of a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge got a boost in July 2012 when President Obama signed a transportation bill that includes language allowing federal funds to flow to the project.

That transportation bill contains crucial wording allowing funding for suicide prevention including safety rails and nets on bridges. The language in the bill also clarifies that institutions such as the Golden Gate Bridge District — a special purpose district — are eligible for these funds.

It was Sen. Barbara Boxer who agreed to carry the language in the bill and U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael told the Independent Journal Friday he was "very supportive" of the project.

The bridge district's suicide barrier plan calls for a net extending 20 feet below and 20 feet from the side of the span. The net would be made from stainless steel cable and would collapse slightly if someone jumped in, making it difficult to get out, bridge officials said.

The district would have a "snooper" truck with an elongated arm to get people out, although such rescues might be rare because the net would act as a deterrent. A similar net was placed more than a decade ago on the Munster Terrace cathedral in Bern, Switzerland, and since then no suicide attempts have been reported.

The bridge has the most suicides of any structure in the world, according to the Bridge Rail Foundation, a group working to get a barrier in place.